Don’t-Miss Indies: What to Watch in June
June! It’s always such a refreshing chunk of Gregorian real estate, the promise of summer looming in its most ideal form, not yet curdled into the desultory, bedraggled blast-furnace blood factories of late August and September. It’s also when cinema begins to stretch her legs again after an invariably prolonged awards season hangover. And yes, this means a lot of sweaty studio would-be blockbusters. But it also means Don’t-Miss Indies. So! Seek out your local art house and keep those summertime blues at bay.
The Actor
When: Now
Where: Theaters, VOD
Director: Duke Johnson
Cast: André Holland, Gemma Chan, May Calamawy, Asim Chaudhry
Why We’re Excited: Somehow it’s been a full decade since Charlie Kaufman’s melancholic stop-motion feature Anomalisa left audiences both dazzled by its technical brilliance and disconsolate by its gutting existential questioning. Kaufman of course has gone on to direct 2020’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things and to write the absurdist doorstopper novel Antkind. But with The Actor, the enigmatic Kaufman’s Anomalisa co-director Duke Johnson finally gets to occupy the center of the frame. Trading in his articulated puppets for flesh-and-blood actors, Johnson adapts Donald E. Westlake’s noirish 2010 novel Memory. Moonlight. Robert Altman Award recipient André Holland plays Paul Cole, a thespian suffering from amnesia following a brutal assault. Stranded in an ominous and unfamiliar town, Paul must piece together the fragments of his shattered backstory and avoid being manipulated by nefarious outside parties to make his way back home. Need more? Executive producers Jeff Deutchman, Laura Rister and Devon Young are all Film Independent Members.
The Life of Chuck
When: June 6
Where: Theaters
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay
Why We’re Excited: Mike Flanagan is certainly no stranger to the work of Stephen King. The Hollywood horror mogul has adapted both Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep for the big screen and his 2021 Netflix limited series Midnight Mass bears more than a passing resemblance to Salem’s Lot. So the fact that Mr. Kate Siegel’s latest feature effort originates from a 2020 King novella is no surprise. This time, however, the Haunting Of Hill House auteur takes a page from the Frank Darabont’s handbook, turning his focus toward a King work more sentimental than spine-tingling. Tom Hiddleston plays the titular Chuck, who emerges from childhood trauma with a unique perspective on the world and an overriding love of dance. Aware that his time on Earth is limited “The Life of Chuck” takes on profound meaning. The result? A genre-defying, deeply personal work that plays to Flanagan’s strengths–even if outside of his usual genre.
Magic Farm
When: June 6
Where: Theaters, MUBI
Director: Amalia Ulman
Cast: Chloë Sevigny, Alex Wolff, Simon Rex, Guillermo Jacubowicz
Why We’re Excited: Premiering earlier this year at Sundance, Argentine-Spanish mixed-media artist Amalia Ulman’s sophomore feature (following 2021’s El Planeta) is a satirical look at the American hipster demographic’s colonialistic global obliviousness and tendency toward blithe cultural vampirism. Seeking to do a story about an elusive musician, only to learn that their quarry is in an entirely different Latin American country altogether. With a global health crisis looming, the team–including 2023 Film Independent Best Male Lead Spirit Award winner Rex–must find a way to pass the time and confront their own (mostly) unconscious bias. The film, according to our friend Carlos Aguilar in Variety, “Operates with refreshing visual anarchy” and is “a formally radical, biting satire about odious, privileged Americans.”
Misericordia
When: June 10
Where: Theaters
Director: Alain Guiraudie
Cast: Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jacques Develay, Jean-Baptiste Durand
Why We’re Excited: Few waterfront holidays are as simultaneously gruesome and unrepentantly horny as the one depicted in Alain Guiraudie’s 2013 thriller Stranger by the Lake. Two subsequent movies and a decade-plus later, the French filmmaker again returns to the thriller genre with Misericordia. Premiering at last year’s Cannes, the film follows Jérémie (Kysyl) on his return home to rural France for the funeral of an old employer. When things go wrong with one of the deceased man’s family members, Jérémie is suddenly left with a body to hide and a crime to cover up. He eventually enlists an unlikely ally: the town priest, who has a secret ulterior motive of his own (spoiler: it’s not the Eucharist.) With Guiraudie’s signature dark comedy in play and a disquieting pastoral mood, the film competed for the 2024 Queer Palm.
Materialists
When: June 13
Where: Theaters
Director: Celine Song
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal
Why We’re Excited: After winning Best Film and Best Director at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, Celine Song was left in the enviable/unenviable position of figuring out what to do as a follow-up. Staying the romantic vein of her breakthrough debut while dialing up the comedic flavor, Materialists is a sumptuous throwback to the starry and glamorous romcoms of the 1980s and ‘90s, a genre once indispensable to the overall Hollywood ecosystem which has somehow been lost in recent years and whose absence is widely lamented. Naturally, a love triangle animates the plot: pragmatic New York businesswoman Lucy (Johnson) finds herself caught between two opposing romantic prospects: wealthy Manhattanite mover-and-shaker Harry (Pedro Pascal) and modest caterer John (Chris Evans). The latter is a blast from Lucy’s past, the former represents the potential for a new professional and personal horizon. Film Independent Members behind the camera include the legendary indie producer Christine Vachon.
Bonjour Tristesse
When: June 13
Where: Theaters
Director: Durga Chew-Bose
Cast: Chloë Sevigny, Claes Bang, Lily McInerny
Why We’re Excited: Adapted once before in 1958 by Otto Preminger, Françoise Sagan’s enduring 1954 French-language novel again finds its way to screen, courtesy of Quebecois filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose. Set amid the lush seascapes of Southern France, budding ingénue Cécile (McInerny, a Breakthrough Performance Spirit Award nominee for 2022’s Palm Trees and Power Lines) and widowed father Raymond (Claes Bang) are all set to enjoy a long holiday soaking up the sun when the father-daughter interlude is interrupted by Anne (Sevigny, in her second Don’t-Miss Indie of the Month), an old friend–and maybe more–of Raymond and his late wife. As tension grows between the two women and additional romantic entanglements threaten to enter the frame things begin to hurdle towards an explosive conclusion. The film premiered last year in the filmmaker’s native Canada, at TIFF.
Ponyboi
When: June 25
Where: Theaters
Director: Esteban Arango
Cast: River Gallo, Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Murray Bartlett
Why We’re Excited: A true Renaissance they/them, Salvadorian-American actor, model, filmmaker and intersex rights activist River Gallo finally puts themselves into a lead film role, the second feature directed by Colombian filmmaker Esteban Arango. A neon-soaked crime caper, Gallo’s screenplay follows the titular Ponyboi, an intersex sex worker trapped in the downscale flats of urban New Jersey. When not also working at the local laundromat with best friend Angel (Pedretti), Ponyboi is on the downlow with their pimp Vinnie (O’Brien)–also the father of Angel’s unborn child. There’s a drug deal, and it goes off without a hitch. Just kidding! The deal goes bad and Ponyboi is soon on the run from the Jersey mob, unsure who to trust and desperate for love. With Gallo earning critical praise for their nuanced portrayal, Ponyboi premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year (2024) before eventually being picked up by Fox for distro.
The Bear, Season 4
When: June 25
Where: FX on Hulu
Created by: Christopher Storer
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce
Why We’re Excited: All your favorites are back for their fourth go-round at Chicago’s most exquisitely dysfunctional fine dining establishment. Carmy is still the genius, consumed by his vision and bedeviled by his inability to communicate said vision to others. Richie is still smoothing out his rough edges and unpacking past traumas. Syd is still struggling to find her own identity in the margins of Carmy’s enterprise–will she stay with our current Southside crew or take off for greener, less tension-fueled pastures? The Bear, of course, won the prized pewter Spirit Award valkyrie for Best New Scripted Series in 2023 for its first season, with Edebiri taking home Best Supporting Performance. This season, the staff of The Bear are up against the clock, as the acclaimed eatery still struggles for profitability under the fraught eye of its benefactor “Uncle Jimmy” (Oliver Platt), whose patience is running thinner than ever.
Sorry, Baby
When: June 27
Where: Theaters
Director: Eva Victor
Cast: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch
Why We’re Excited: Known for her recurring role in the latter seasons of Billions, Eva Viktor goes both in front of and behind in her debut feature as writer/director. Produced by Barry Jenkins, Sorry, Baby tells the story of Agnes (Victor), a young academic in New England recovering from sexual assault. Convalescing at home and struggling to bounce back both mentally and physically, she’s joined by an old classmate (Ackie) for what both parties hope will be an epic hang. As Agnes discovers how her recent experiences have forever altered her personal relationships and self-identity, life nevertheless goes on. Yet another 2025 Sundance premiere, Sorry, Baby is being released wide by A24. Executive producer Michael B. Clark and editor Randi Atkins are–you guessed it!–Film Independent Members.
KEY
Film Independent Fellow or Member
Film Independent Presents Screening, Q&A
Microbudget
Filmmaker or Lead Characters of Color
Film Independent Spirit Award Winner or Nominee
Female Filmmaker
LGBT Filmmaker or Lead LGBT Characters
First-time Filmmaker
LA Film Festival Winner or Nominee
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
Keep up with Film Independent…